This past week I was fortunate to attend a long-range shooting clinic at the JL Bar Ranch in central Texas. It was a writer’s event, so myself and about five other gun writers were all shooting the same rig, and what a rig it was:

I had shot out to 1,000 yards once before, but this was the first time I really did all the work, myself, to make the shot — from zeroing the rifle to dialing in the proper elevation for each shot. I even got to practice estimating windage, though I did have a more experienced spotter behind me doing that most of the time.

I’m fairly new to long range shooting, so fortunately I didn’t have any bad habits to unlearn. The recoil and report from the 6.5 round in combination with the rifle’s muzzle brake, were mild enough that flinching wasn’t ever an issue, so as long as I stayed focused and relaxed, my groups stayed well under 1MOA.

As someone who’s relatively new to long-range, I was grateful for the classroom time that preceded the range time. I’m also grateful that the Sabatti STR turned out to be a 1/4 MOA gun or better,